Hey guys, new to the forum here, and I have been a vegan nearly 3 months and training for about 4 months I'd say pretty consistently. Just been doing mostly bodyweight, used dumbells for biceps for a while before I got my pullup bar a couple of weeks ago. (working my way up to 4 pullups... that shit is hard! ) Since starting my training I've gone from about 161 pounds to 141.4. I've stopped losing weight which I'm happy with and have just been focused on muscle development. My diet is very clean and I do all my own cooking, so no real questions there. Although any good recipes and that stuff is more than welcome, plus post workout/ preworkout meals. Anyway I just want to use this as a motivator/progress diary mainly and I will try to post up once a week or once every two weeks. Initially I was pretty motivated to get a six pack (like most 18 year old lads..) but now I am moreso into just exercising for health and allowing all that stuff to come whenever it does. My training schedule is as follows, three days a week, in a circuit style,

Pushups, Pullups, Squats, Chinups, Sit Ups, Back Bridges.I do all till failure and the bridges for 60 secs. 3 rounds of that. 2-3 min rest between rounds. Do you think I should do more rounds? If anyone has any other good exercises to suggest then please do and how I can make my training more effective. Thanks a lot. Any general advice is good.

michealmurray52 wrote:My training schedule is as follows, three days a week, in a circuit style,

Pushups, Pullups, Squats, Chinups, Sit Ups, Back Bridges.I do all till failure and the bridges for 60 secs. 3 rounds of that. 2-3 min rest between rounds. Do you think I should do more rounds? If anyone has any other good exercises to suggest then please do and how I can make my training more effective. Thanks a lot. Any general advice is good.

Hey Michael,I am a calisthenics enthusiast as well. I also have dabbled in powerlifting and running.

A few things I have noticed about your routine.

If you are looking for general fitness then doing the circuit style works pretty well...but if you are looking for good strength and muscle gains then straight sets with 60-120 sec rest will work much better.

I know I will get blasted by the HIT enthusiasts here but dont go to failure, go till you know the next rep will not succeed and on pull ups stop when your form degrades. You will be able to do more sets and get more volume in equaling more time under tension and more neuromuscular connections.

There is no need to do both chins and pull ups in the same workout but I do sometimes do both alternating one set of pullups and the next set would be chins.

Sit ups are a poor choice and are more of an ab/hip flexor endurance exercise. If you can do more than 30-40 reps its not really building anything. Instead use hanging knee raises and progress to hanging leg raises toe to bar. Plus all that hanging will give you a super grip that will really help you on your pull ups. Push ups can fall into that category too but there are tons of ways to make those more difficult. Dips are another fantastic exercise you should include but not unless you can crank out 5 sets of 20 push ups.

2-3 sets is not enough. 5 is the magic number for me. Unless Im doing at least 5 sets of a movement I dont see improvement past the first couple of weeks or so. So to start 3 sets is good for 2 weeks then add a 4th set in week 3 then a 5th on week 4.

Instead of hitting failure for each set which would look something likePull ups x 4,3,2

Use a double progression which is each set stop just short of failure and try to hit the same number of reps across each set before increasing the number of reps for the first set. A double progression would look like:Mon Pullups x 3,3,3Wed Pullups x 4,3,3Fri Pullups x 4,4,3

If you wanted to implement these suggestions your workout routine would look like this

I will often pair two or more exercises similar to a circuit but take about 30 sec between exercises to recover just a bit and that gives me enough recovery to be able to do the exercises effectively.

Cheers,Eiji

Make no excuses to skip a training session. Feel stressed, sad, sick or tired? Go train. Your friends, your heart, mind and body will lie to you. Telling you that you need that recovery day. Go ahead, stay home. I'll be training that day and getting better no matter what.

@eiji totally spot on! All I would add is that if you're doing calisthenics then bodyweight squats aren't enough to build a great lower body, you should try sprints and box jumps too also butt ups are a good alternative to sit ups! All the bestRoss

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vegan_rossco wrote:@eiji totally spot on! All I would add is that if you're doing calisthenics then bodyweight squats aren't enough to build a great lower body, you should try sprints and box jumps too also butt ups are a good alternative to sit ups! All the bestRoss

Thanks Ross,

I totally neglected to mention the BW squats. Youre right about those. you will be hitting sets of 50 on BW squats pretty quick and with mental fortitude sets of 100 or more so they are deffinately out for really packing on some mass. Barbell back squats are best for that IMO but if you dont have access to a gym you can get a bar and some weights and do front squats at home...that's what I do. Pistol squats and jump squats will be the next best thing after that and once you are strong enough to do sets of 15 its time to load them and that will be easily done with whatever you can pick up. I use dumbbells or sandbags. I also think it is important to add weight to the other exercises when you are ready. If you dont have either sandbags are super easy to make with a bag of sand and duct tape.

Also when you are strong enough to do dips start working on hand stand or overhead strength. Overhead work builds great shoulders and traps

Make no excuses to skip a training session. Feel stressed, sad, sick or tired? Go train. Your friends, your heart, mind and body will lie to you. Telling you that you need that recovery day. Go ahead, stay home. I'll be training that day and getting better no matter what.

Thanks a lot guys for your advice! Yeah I definitely get what you are saying about those exercises in regards to crunches, sit-ups and body weight squats. Just in regards to the knee raises, I have a doorframe pull up bar so I can't hang completely straight with legs fully extended, so obviously I have to bend my knees back at a 90 degree angle, can I still do the knee raises effectively like that? I would just worry about eliminating swing. I've just started to move onto more difficult push-up variants as well to keep it interesting and effective.

Thanks for the help on sets as well, to be honest I've only been experimenting with circuits these last two - three weeks, mainly to try and save time, but looks like I'll just have to get myself up earlier!! That doubles idea seems great as well, definitely going to implement that as well as upping the sets.

Rossco, in regards to sprints would flat surfaces be good or would you recommend a slightly steep hill? Also would you put it into the routine itself or maybe do it on the rest days and couple it with a short 5 k and place sprints throughout the run?

I'm about to head to uni in about two weeks and I intend to join a gym when I get there, but I also am going to build toward pistol squats..

Thanks very much for your help guys, gonna stick with it and go in much harder from now on.

Also perhaps if either of you could help with this, whenever I am doing my pull-ups and I bend my knees I start to swing slightly, not much, but enough that I want to get rid of it, what is the best way to do that in the bent knees dead hang? Thanks!

Knee raises as you describe in the door frame bar will be fine. In regards to the swing, you will get better control in time. I have my kids doing pull ups and knee raises and I just put my hand in the small of their back to stop the swing. Once you get stronger your control will be better. For now you can stop the swing with your foot on the floor.

Make no excuses to skip a training session. Feel stressed, sad, sick or tired? Go train. Your friends, your heart, mind and body will lie to you. Telling you that you need that recovery day. Go ahead, stay home. I'll be training that day and getting better no matter what.

I'd throw in a recommendation to work your legs independently of each other, with pistol squats, single leg squats, single leg good mornings, etc. Helps to build up your balance and other fine muscles. Also, I like to do trios of pullups, utilizing different grips. That way you can focus on not only the lats, but also other areas such as biceps. Don't forget Aussie pullups either.

I'd have to second Eiji with doing full sets and then taking a rest. It's also great for increasing heart rate.

With respect to your pullup swinging issue, I try to put one foot on top of the other, and then slightly bend my knees back.